


The Master, His Student and the Rebel

by NobodysValentiine



Category: Final Space (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Gen, I promise, I say "slow burn" but it probably won't be, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Sorry, M/M, Slow Burn, Tags Are Hard, Tags May Change, Trans Character, Trans rights babey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-09-23 21:07:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20346727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NobodysValentiine/pseuds/NobodysValentiine
Summary: Gary Goodspeed is a year and ten months into his sentence on the Galaxy One, but it seems his sentence is coming to an abrupt end.





	The Master, His Student and the Rebel

"Hi, Quinn! It's me, Gary! It's Day... H.U.E.! What day is it?"  
  
_"It is day 672 of your sentence, Gary."_  
  
"Day 672-goodness that's depressing. Has it really been that long? I can't believe it's been that long! Haha, just... spending my days here talking to robots and... and you. And not getting an answer. But that's no matter, I'm sure you're just... busy. Or maybe you have replied and I just haven't, you know, received your replies. Like I said, no matter, totally chill, we can talk when we meet again. I mean I'm already 672 days in! Not too long, now!"  
  
_"Incorrect. You are 672 days into a 1,460-day sentence. Meaning you still have 788 days left on the Galaxy One."_  
  
"Thanks! Thank you, so much H.U.E.! That helps! It really does!"  
  
_"Your tone suggests otherwise, Gary."_

"Yeah! Yeah, I know that, H.U.E.! I was being sarcastic!"  
  
_"I'm not here for your sass, Gary."_  
  
"Ugh. Anyway-woah! What in the _fresh hell_ was that?! I-I'll be back, Quinn!"  
  
Gary slammed his fist onto the transceiver in a panicked attempt to turn it off as he reached for stabilization, the ship shaking with the aftershocks of _something_. He cringed to himself as he saw the buttons on the transceiver horribly mangled by his fist, cursing under his breath as he clung to his desk until his feet adjusted to the unstable ground beneath him. Once he finally regained his composure he stumbled out of his room, down the hall and into the cockpit, freezing up almost immediately as he looked out the windows.  
  
"What is that, H.U.E.?"  
  
_"That appears to be a Heavy Incinerator. A type of spacecraft belonging to someone known as the Lord Commander."_

"And why is it here-" Gary began to ask, but the speakers throughout the Galaxy One interrupted him.  
  
**"This is Avocato, representative and second in command of the Lord Commander's fleet. I demand you dock the Galaxy One onto our ship immediately and hand over your prisoners, or else I will be forced to destroy your vessel."**  
  
Gary stiffened at the deep voice that rang throughout the Galaxy One, and tilted his head at the message. "What kind of a name is Avocato-" He thought aloud to himself, before shaking his head with a disgruntled huff. He was about to open his mouth to speak, before the ship began moving beneath his feet. As he planted himself in the captain's seat, he realized it would be unwise to protest until he was aboard the ship. And even then protesting probably wouldn't be a great idea. He called out "Avocato" but being called the "Lord Commander" is just suspicious. Is he a lord? Is he a commander? Is his name Commander and lord his title? Lord Commander doesn't sound like a real title. What's he the "Lord Commander" of, anyway?

By the time he'd finished overthinking who the mysterious "Lord Commander" person was, the ship was already docked and he was exiting the Galaxy One, his mouth forming an 'o' shape as he looked around the Heavy Incinerator, all black walls and red lights, with warm, humid air that made Gary's skin feel sticky, but sent a chill down his spine. Guards surrounded the Galaxy One, all dressed in the exact same armor, their identical, expressionless helmets making it hard to tell if they were even people. Soon, though, his fears of being surrounded by even more robots were put to rest, as they all gasped and squealed as a pair of dark blue, fluffy ears perked up above the crowd, which was now quickly splitting and dispersing to make a path. Walking down said path, was a tall, stern, buff-  
  
"Is that a freakin' cat?!" Gary blurted out.  
  
_"That is a Ventrexian, Gary."_ H.U.E. responded from the ship's outer speakers, among the gasps of outraged soldiers. The Ventrexian himself lashed his tail and widened his eyes at the human's outburst, ears pinning back against his head, and a small frown on his face, which... oh, gosh, that was actually pretty cute. His hackles raised, fur all fluffing up like that, Gary had to bite the inside of his cheeks to stop himself from grinning.  
  
"Not _just_ a Ventrexian. Avocato, Master of Death, and you should treat me with _respect_. How would you like it if I referred to you as a _primate_?" The Ventrexian hissed as he stepped closer, and the way he said primate sent a pain through Gary's chest. It felt dehumanizing, it was HURTFUL. He looked away in shame.  
  
"I-um. Okay, message received, won't say that again." He apologized, putting his hands up in defense and returning his gaze to Avocato's. As their eyes met Gary flinched, realizing that Avocato had come even closer. He was tall, weirdly tall, he had his pink, kitty nose turned up at Gary, but his gaze seemed to soften the longer he inspected him, pupils going from annoyed slits to curious circles. Avocato gave a small huff and he stepped back, giving the poor man some space.  
  
"Good. Follow me. The rest of you strip the ship for parts." Avocato ordered and moved to turn away, but in an instinctual move, Gary grabbed his shoulder with a yell.  
  
"Wait!"  
  
Now, that could have ended really badly, and Gary realized this very quickly, because Avocato turned quickly and moved his paw upwards, claws unsheathed and nose scrunched up, but as soon as he saw his face he froze, and the anger drained from his face into confusion as his gaze flitted around Gary's expression. Whatever he saw, be it desperation or fear, made him halt in his very tracks, and he raised a brow as he gently sheathed his claws and wrapped his hand around Gary's wrist, all too gently, to pull it away from his shoulder.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Can you... maybe transfer H.U.E. into, like, a body? Or something? Not just, you know, kill him?"  
  
This definitely confused the Ventrexian. He squinted at Gary, tilted his head and flicked his ears. Oh, my, that was cute, too. Gary bit the insides of his cheeks again as he tried not to giggle at how the man's bottom lip stuck out in a confused pout, and his pink nose twitched curiously. Gary realized that Avocato's hand was still on his wrist, and took a moment to focus on how the paw pads on his fingers and palm pressed softly against his skin, because that was a lot nicer to think about than the fact he was now stranded on a seemingly very dangerous ship with a very dangerous man leading it.  
  
Avocato tilted his head again, this time to the other side, no longer pouting in confusion, rather more in an analytic manner. Cat-like eyes scanning Gary's face before his hand left his arm, and Gary felt his breath falter a little as Avocato's soft, yet scratchy paw pads rubbed against his skin as they left.  
  
"Fine. Transfer the A.I. to a handheld device. Now, as I was saying, follow me." The Ventrexian huffed, turning away from Gary and starting to walk, not once turning his head to see if Gary was following. Which he was, of course. Gary made a lot of bad decisions at pretty much every point of his life, but he wasn't crazy enough not to listen to this very clearly heavily armed Ventrexian.  
  
The incinerator was gigantic. Of course, he knew that just from seeing the outside of it. But the inside was equally as gigantic. Tons of soldiers. Though, it was easy to tell who was new and who wasn't. The proper soldiers were in full armor, all looking the same, but the trainees had no helmets, less protection and less weapons. He tried to make eye contact with a couple of them, but as soon as he did they all shied away from his gaze, afraid, concerned, and awkward.  
  
Very soon Gary found himself in an elevator, with Avocato, apparently going to the top floor of the incinerator. It was a somewhat awkward trip, neither of them spoke. But they both looked at each other, Gary often found himself staring at the Ventrexian, and would sometimes find him staring back. Which was strange. Of course, Avocato always stared at him in a kind of serious way, as if observing something, while Gary was very plainly just staring. But who could blame him, really? He'd seen a lot of extraterrestrials on Earth, but never Ventrexians. Avocato was very interesting to look at. All muscle and fur and bright golden irises that turned a subtle grass green around his pupils. Not to mention his ears, which were perked up, twitching and swiveling around at all times. His body language was stiff and stern, mirroring his behavior.  
  
In all honesty, Gary was a little bit enthralled by the man.  
  
His thoughts were brought to a halt by the elevator stopping, and Avocato looking at him expectantly, blinking his golden eyes at him and giving a gentle nudge to the exit with his nose. Gary pursed his lips nervously and took a few hesitant steps out of the elevator, and Avocato followed, quickly taking the lead again once they were out.  
  
The floor they were on was lined with rooms. Well, actually, they looked like cells. Some of them had transparent walls, and you could see right into them, but those rooms usually were empty. Ones that were occupied had blacked out walls. Well. Not blacked out, really. They were a glowing dark purple. Can colors that are that dark even glow? Apparently so. At the end of the floor the two sides of it connected, and there was a large door at the end, that Gary assumed was an office of some sorts. Or someone important's room. They were actually very quickly reaching the end of the floor, and Avocato stopped at the cell that was closest to the large door, and pressed his paw against the transparent wall, the wall then flashing green in a sign of confirmation before completely disappearing. Gary nearly leapt forward as he felt Avocato's tail thump against his leg, a clear indication to move inside.  
  
"What's your name?" Avocato asked before Gary could even speak.  
  
"Oh, wow. This is all happening very fast. I'm, uh, Gary. Gary Goodspeed."  
  
"Goodspeed... hm. That rings a bell."  
  
"Well, haha, yeah, about that, my dad was-"  
  
"No time for pleasantries. Gary Goodspeed, you will be a soldier for the Lord Commander's army. I have decided, within the past ten to fifteen minutes of knowing you, that I will train you myself, along with a few other ex-convicts that we have retrieved from prison ships."  
  
"Oh! Is that good? I bet you saw something in me, didn't you? Would it be my rugged handsomeness and sheer, undeniable strength-" Gary began, putting on a low, braggadocious tone of voice, but he was quickly cut off by Avocato chuckling. Which was... actually kind of melodious. Hurtful! But melodious. And then he snorted, which was super cute. But hurtful, also. Avocato caught himself when he snorted, putting a paw over his mouth and almost literally wiping the smile off his own face, which was also hurtful. In a different way. It made Gary's chest feel all weird. He liked listening to Avocato laugh and seeing him smile.  
  
"No. It actually means I think you need extra supervision for your training. But good joke, soldier." Avocato deadpanned. "Now, I'm going to leave you to adjust to your room. You'll be awoken in 10 Earthen hours and given your armor. I expect you to be in my room when you're appropriately dressed and prepared for your first session of training, which will be more of an evaluation than an actual session, so don't worry too much." He added, before leaving the room and heading for his own, the walls of the cell returning and blending in with the room's overall look. It was like there wasn't even a giant ship holding hundreds, if not thousands of other people lying just outside.  
  
Gary sat on the bed in the cell, and found it... actually pretty decently comfortable. Much more comfortable than the ones on the Galaxy One. He sank into the bed and gave a little hum, tapping the duvet and grumbling to himself.  
  
"Okay, cool, cool cool cool. Evaluation tomorrow. Becoming a soldier for some rando called the Lord Commander. Sweet. Cool. Guess this is my life now." Gary seethed.  
  
This would take a while to get used to.


End file.
